Seville in the 16th century was a city of wealth, the arts and international trade. But, says Matthew Carr, author of The Emperor of Seville, it was also Spain’s criminal capital, winning the nickname of the Great Babylon. He tells Historia how Seville embodied the paradox at the heart of Spain’s Golden Age. History tends […]
Travelling to Weimar Berlin – in 1930 and the 2020s
Fiona Veitch Smith travels to Weimar Berlin in 1930, using her antique Baedeker guidebook, and finds that the nearly 100-year-old book can still help her find the places she’s researching in the 2020s. In previous articles for Historia I outlined how I use vintage fashion and vintage guide books as research for my neo-Golden Age […]
The fall and rise of fascism
Catherine Hokin, author of The Girl Who Told the Truth, reflects on the rise and fall of Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement in England, how fascism continued after the end of the Second World War, and the lessons history can teach us. “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” That quote from […]
Historical books to look out for in 2026
Welcome to Historia’s most popular regular feature, our round-up of historical books published by members of the Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) to look out for this year. In 2026, there are more than 130 books so far — historical fiction, history, and biography. They range from Ancient Greece and Rome to the mid-20th century via the Viking […]
Final Score by Sean Lusk (the 2025 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story winner)
Sean Lusk’s Final Score won the 2025 HWA Dorothy Dunnett Short Story Competition. It’s with great pleasure that we publish it here in Historia. The competition judges called it: “A brilliantly-crafted and poignant story set in the wake of WWI. The dry, courageous narrator delivers a heart-rending and thought-provoking story of a veteran playing piano […]
Serious play: the fiction-writer’s balancing act
Researching historical fiction is serious work, as Jem Poster, novelist and professor of Creative Writing, says. But to write engaging, inventive novels is a kind of playing, a balancing act between imagination and facts. His new book aims to guide authors towards writing quality fiction through this kind of serious play. It’s arguable that historical […]
The invention of masculine fashion
Novelist Carolyn Kirby describes how research for her new novel, Ravenglass, led her to wonder what lay behind the apparently radical shift in men’s fashions during the late 18th century. She discusses the invention of the ‘masculine’ style that still dominates menswear. The clothes we wear are more than fashion choices. They tell other people […]
Christmas reading 2025 – historical books to give or to treat yourself to
We asked 12 well-loved authors to each suggest a couple of historical books to give, receive, or treat yourself to for Christmas 2025. There are ideas for history-reading children and teens as well. Newly-published or classics, fiction and non-fiction, their choices range from Ancient Rome to a history of Black British culture, via the Crusades, […]